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ST. Augustine speaking of the An∣tient Patriarks and Prophets, sayes, Re, non nomine Christiani; they were not Christians in Name, but in effect and action. But we may affirm the contrary of many in our times, who stile themselves Christians; they are not such really and in effect, but only by Baptisme and Name.
To discover fully this truth unto you, I shall shew you the divers lives of Chri∣stians; and what is the true one necessa∣rily required to obtain Salvation. For we be such, as the lives are we lead; good, if they be such; bad, if they be bad. To have life, saith St. Thomas, is to have in one the principle and cause of Motion; when a Woman with Child perceives the fruit she bears in her, begin to move, she sayes, I know well my Infant is alive; when one is on his Death-bed, if we see he hath not any more motion, neither in hands, eyes, lips, or pulse, we say, he hath no life in him. From hence we give by a Metaphor, the name of Life; to a running water; to a flame as∣cending in the Air; not that they have properly life in them, but because they move, being not in their Center, but tending to it. We find in the world four sorts of Lives, according to four divers principles, which give motion to all the actions of living Creatures. The Vege∣tative Life, which is that of Plants, which is imployed to nourish and in∣crease.
The Sensitive Life, that of Beasts and Animals, which conduct themselves by sence. The Rational Life, which is guided only by Natural Reason. The true Christian Life, which is governed by Faith. If we look amongst Christi∣ans and Catholicks with the true eye of the Spirit, we may discover many fair Plants, good Beasts, and honest Men, as the world stiles them; but few true Christians.